U.S. Pat. No. 6,020,823 to DeCicco, 2000, discloses a package with sound effects comprising a container for a consumer product, a sound-reproducing unit connected to a power supply and a loudspeaker, and an external activation sensor.
The package according to the above patent can reproduce sounds, when the user activates the external activation sensor. The drawback of the above package is that reproduced sound signals do not depend on the package state, in particular if the package is open or closed, full or empty.
The most close to the claimed invention is the sound-reproducing package disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,795,209 to Moore, 1998. The package according to Moore comprises a housing for storing a consumer product with a sound signal reproducing unit located therein and connected to a power supply and a loudspeaker, and at least one external activation sensor connected to the first input of the sound signal reproducing unit.
The package according to Moore can comprise several external activation sensors and reproduce various sound signals, for example speech messages prerecorded in the memory of the sound signals reproducing unit upon the activation by the user of said sensors.
However, the package according to Moore has its limitations. The reproduced sound signals do not depend on the state of the package, for example if it is open or closed, empty or full. They are determined only by a sensor activated. Besides, the package according to Moore can not be used as a pet toy after the consumer product has been used, as sounds are only reproduced only upon sensors activation. The above package cannot reproduce spontaneous sounds to attract the attention of pets.